Improvement in carpet-stretchers



W. W. PTTS.

Carpet-Stretchers.

910.150,25?, t Patented Apri! 28,1874.

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Z'# @wwwa UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM WV. POTTS, OF SWEDELAND, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN CARPET-STRETCHERS.

Slpecilcation forming` part of Letters Patent No. 150,257, dated April 28, 1874; application filed February 28, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it knownthat I, WILLIAM W. PoTTs, of Swedeland, in the county of Montgomery and State of Pennsylvania, have invented an Improved Carpet-Stretcher, of which the following is a specication:

The object of my invention is to afford or produce a carpet-stretcher that will not only be light, inexpensive of construction, and operated with facility and eectiveness, but will not require a nail or hook to be driven into the wash-board oriloor of the room in order to hold it in place for the purpose. It consists, simply, of a light wooden lever of the lirst class, having' a broad roughened foot Aor weight end, which will not easily slip on the surface of the carpet, andthe fulcrum connected by a short liexible band of strong leather, or by a jointed bar or chain, to a small angle-plate, the opposite or free end of which is in the form of a knife-edge or a thin sharp wedge, with two, more or less, short sharp-pointed spurs projecting from its under side near the angle of the plate, as will be more fully eX- plained and understood by the following description, with reference tothe accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l isa side elevation of the stretcher in the position as when holding the edge of the carpet in close contact with the wash board ready for tacking down, the iioor and wash-board being in dotted lines, and the carpet in section. Fig. 2 is the same stretcher detached and lying with its flexible band and angle-plate upward, and turned backward so as to throw the spurs on the under side of the plate.

The lever A is a straight tapering bar of sti` wood, about four feet, long, more or less, and about an average diameter of one and a quarter inch, and has secured rigidly to larger or lower end a foot, a', which is a block of wood about eight inches long, more or less, and rounded transversely alongits under side, and the said rounded side covered with a roughened or longitudinally and transversely grooved vulcanized gum fabric, usually called soaling, or the block itself grooved in the same manner, or covered with a corrugated or roughened plate of metal, so as to produce a curved surface on the rounded under side of the block a, substantially as shown in the drawings, which will prevent it from sliding easily over the top surface of the carpet. The fulcruni a is fixed to the lever yA at about eight inches or a foot, more or less, above the foot a, and has articulated to it a exible strap, B, or chain, about eighteen inches long, more or less, to the opposite end of which the angle-plate C is fixed. This plate C is of brass or other suitable metal, is about an inch wide, and extends from its angle in both directions about an inch, the directions being about a right angle to each other. The one end of the said plate is fixed to the flexible strap B, and the other end thinned to a knife-edge or thin wedge, c', and

has fixed under the heel of the wedge two spurs, 2 2, substantially as represented in the drawings.

The implement is applied and used as follows: The carpet being spread out upon the floor of the room in the usual manner, the oper-ator pushes the thin knife-edged end of the plate U sufficiently into the usual crack or space between the lower edge of the wash` board and the floor, as shown in Fig. l, and then places the foot a so that it will rest upon the carpet in front of the operators feet, With the lever A inclined from him at about al1 angle of forty-live degrees, or contrary to the inclination represented in Fig. 1, and then pressing it downward in the opposite direction, substantially as lrepresented in said Fig. 1,the roughened under side of the foot a preventing it from slipping during said operation.

It will be seen that this is a very simple, inexpensive, and reliable carpet-stretcher, that can be readily operated by any housekeeper or domestic without any difficulty.

.I claim as my invention- A carpet-stretcher consisting of the angleplate C and lever A, constructed and connected togetherl substantially in the manner hereinbefore set forth.

VILLIAM W. POTTS.

Witnesses BENJ. MoRIsoN,

WM. H. MoRIsoN. 

